Date of Completion

2020

Thesis Type

College of Arts and Science Honors

Department

Psychological Science

First Advisor

Dr. Betsy Hoza

Second Advisor

Dr. Erin Shoulberg

Keywords

preschool physical activity, preschool exercise, video physical activity intervention, barrier and facilitators to physical activity

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) is important for preschoolers’ health. This study piloted the addition of in-home online exercise videos, Kiddie CATs at Home, to a previously existing in-school PA intervention, Kiddie CATs on the Move (Meyer et al., under review; Meyer et al., 2019) creating a multi-context PA program for preschool children. Additionally, this project explored health-related behaviors (screen time, sleep) and barriers and facilitators to children’s PA outside of school. Families were recruited as part of a larger program evaluation study of the Kiddie CATs on the Move PA intervention. Forty-two parents of participating preschool children (Mage = 3.98, SD = 0.59, 52.4% male, 40.5% Caucasian, 31% Asian, 19% African American, 2.4% Latinx, and 7.1% other) completed a 14-item parent survey created specifically for use on this project. Correlational analyses indicated a significant positive association between Head Start enrollment status and school day screen use. Weekend and school day screen use were also significantly positively correlated. A paired-samples t-test comparing mean weekday and weekend screen time revealed that, on average, screen use was higher on weekend days than on school days. A significant positive correlation was found between average hours slept on weekends and average hours slept on weekdays. Parents reported children had positive responses to the intervention. Themes in parents’ responses from qualitative coding of the questionnaires related to children’s experiences watching the Kiddie CATs at Home videos, children’s current PA behavior outside of school, and characteristics of barriers/facilitators to PA. This study highlights the potential for video-based PA interventions to engage preschool children in PA in the home.

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